The walls of the Sunnyvale Armory, which served as a shelter during winter months for more than 20 years, will officially come down in the near future to make room for permanent, affordable housing.

The Sunnyvale City Council approved plans for two separate affordable-housing projects proposed by MidPen Housing and Charities Housing on April 30 after more than two years of planning.

The decision to explore the armory site for the affordable-housing project came after the initial location at the Onizuka Air Force Station was deemed inconvenient and isolated for residents back in February 2011. In March of that year, it was suggested that the project applicants look at the more centralized location of the armory.

Since then, the applicants held several community outreach meetings. The proposed number of units was reduced from 121 to 117 to address neighbors’ concerns regarding overflow parking.

Both homeless housing providers, MidPen and Charities decided to build a combination of family units and studio apartments. MidPen is proposing to build 58 units of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in a four-story building.

Charities Housing proposed a three-story building that will house 59 studio apartments. Forty-six units will be dedicated as homeless apartments. All of the units will be for extremely to very low-income households, with annual incomes ranging from $10,650 to $62,850.

The housing providers also plan to deliver on-site programs and services such as adult education classes, financial literacy, income tax preparation and after-school programs.

“It’s imperative for us and groups to look and find ways to build housing such as this to help folks transition from the streets to a house and move up,” Mayor Tony Spitaleri said. “I know we’re not going to take our eye off the ball in helping those who still need food and shelter on a regular basis.”

The city, county and representatives from EHC LifeBuilders–the operators of the shelter–will continue to work together to identify alternatives to the armory.

The affordable-housing project garnered support from several community nonprofits, including Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Peninsula Interfaith Action and the Downtown Streets Team.

“It’s our job to end homelessness with all our partners, and it would make my job a lot easier if this project did come to fruition,” said Chris Richardson of the Downtown Streets Team. “You can’t ever really end homelessness until you build enough affordable housing, especially in this area. Permanent housing is the long-term solution.”

The final vote was 6-1, with Councilman Patrick Meyering dissenting. Meyering said the city should follow San Jose and Gilroy’s example by refusing to close the shelter until a replacement was identified.

The applicants and their supporters felt the city was doing ample work with EHC LifeBuilders to find a new location for the armory.

“The city has already shown a lot of leadership on this issue in pulling together the executive director of the EHC and the representatives of the county who are really responsible for the decisions related to the future funding of the shelter. So, I think we would recommend that the city continue to provide that leadership and helping to facilitate that dialogue,” said Jan Lindenthal of MidPen Housing.

The armory will not be demolished any sooner than mid-2014, as the cold weather shelter will operate for another year, assuming the county’s funding is approved as proposed, according to Sunnyvale communications officer Jennifer Garnett. The two housing providers also still need to be awarded their funding, which could take a year to secure.

San Francisco’s police chief apologized on Friday for raiding a freelance journalist’s home and office to find out who leaked a police report into the unexpected death of the city’s former public defender.

A leading mortgage settlement and title insurance company, First American Financial Corporation, left hundreds of millions of customer records accessible on the web, including personal information such as Social Security numbers, according to a report on a security blog Friday.

Marijuana is legal in California -- but the lofty goals of Prop. 64 remain only partially filled, deferring the dream of funding major new state-run social programs. Our analysis finds that some counties and cities show great success, though, in putting new funds to good use.